Your View: Social media tests limits of adolescent brain

It doesn't matter when you attended high school. High school is bad enough when you think about all the peer pressure to fit in, be accepted and be one of the "in" crowd, be a "jock" or a "princess." But now it seems as though the high school experience has gotten worse — not just for the "brain" or the "basket case," but for the jocks and princesses as well — all because of social media.

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By VICTORIA LEGAN

southcoasttoday.com

By VICTORIA LEGAN

Posted May. 9, 2013 at 12:01 AM

By VICTORIA LEGAN
Posted May. 9, 2013 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

It doesn't matter when you attended high school. High school is bad enough when you think about all the peer pressure to fit in, be accepted and be one of the "in" crowd, be a "jock" or a "princess." But now it seems as though the high school experience has gotten worse — not just for the "brain" or the "basket case," but for the jocks and princesses as well — all because of social media.

Take for instance, the scandal surrounding Taunton High School and other area schools in the city of Taunton ("Taunton High School students are accused of setting up a website and charging other students a fee to visit the site where they can see nude photos of their classmates," NBC10 news, April 4).

Issues of students "sexting" one another in the Taunton area is nothing new to this community. Taunton eighth-grade teacher Patrick Doyle was arrested in 2011 on sexting allegations and was accused of having sex with a student, according to the Taunton Daily Gazette on Jan. 19. The problem today is these adolescents are being exploited by their own peers.

During adolescence — the transition between childhood and adulthood — the amygdala, the part of the brain's limbic system that is the seat of emotions such as anger, matures much earlier than the prefrontal cortex. This is what sometimes causes adolescents to make rash and unreasonable decisions. Combine that with the influence of peers through social media, and you can find one explanation for the kind of scandal that is currently plaguing the Taunton community.

An issue more at the heart of this particular matter, however, is social media itself. These teens don't think about what they post on Twitter or what they "share" on Facebook. They don't think about the long-range impact the Internet can have on their lives. Sure, the Internet is helpful for term papers, and acquisition of knowledge, or for looking for jobs and searching for schools to attend, but the reality is that social media outlets such as Facebook can harm them.

Between social media, and cameras built in to cell phones, a picture could be taken at any time that could change the course of someone's life forever. Once something is on the Internet, it's out there forever. There's no telling who saw what picture, or where that picture could end up. For all these teens know, these pictures could end up on a sex offender's computer or in the hands of a potential future employer.

A way to solve this issue, and perhaps the only feasible way to solve this issue, could be what Taunton officials are in the midst of setting up now — information sessions about the long-range impact of social media. Hopefully, programs like this can allow adolescents to see that just because their so-called "friends" want them to do something or post some picture, doesn't mean that they should.